ptempel

I was able to get vag-com running under VirtualBox on Ubuntu 8.04 Linux. My laptop is an older Dell Inspiron 4000 with 512MB memory and a DVD. I would not recommend running with less memory than this since you will want to use a little less than half for VirtualBox. Here's what I did:

1. Install Ubuntu 8.04. I used the regular i386 desktop CD:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

2. If you have an old laptop with an ATI Rage Mobility M3, then you may get a split screen effect. I can send you my xorg.conf file that fixes it.

3. Download and install VirtualBox. Use the howto on ubuntuforums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=770745&highlight=virtualbox

Note that this has you download the .deb package from the VirtualBox website. This is not the opensource version from the repository.

4. Add this line to the end of your /etc/fstab file:

none /proc/bus/usb usbfs defaults,devmode=0666 0 0

This will give you the proper permissions to use the USB port.

5. Run VirtualBox (Applications->System Tools->VirtualBox) and create a new virtual machine. I used Windows XP with service pack 2 for the OS and used a little over 200MB memory. All other stuff was the default. Go ahead and use it to install Windows from CD.

6. Install the vag-com software. I use the latest one here:

http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/download/current.html

which was version 704.

7. Setup USB for the VirtualBox machine. With it turned off, go to Settings->USB. Click on "enable USB controller" only. Plug in your HEX+CAN USB cable. Then select the add USB filter button (on the right of the USB device filters box with the green + sign). An entry for "Ross-Tech HEX-USB [0400]" should show up. Select the check box for that entry.

8. Install the HEX+CAN USB driver in Windows. Use the instructions here:

http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/usb/usb-config-current.html

9. That should be it. Try hooking up the cable to your car and see if you can do a scan.

APD

Cool. Thanks for the how-to.

ptempel

No prob. Its nice not to have to reboot. :-)